


Paralysis

by Lunaraen



Category: Minecraft Story Mode
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-04
Updated: 2016-03-04
Packaged: 2018-05-24 15:19:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6157918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lunaraen/pseuds/Lunaraen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You can't be lucky, not forever. Sooner or later, it'll catch up to ya. I promise.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Magnus’s body landed on the remaining bits of cobblestone that hadn’t been destroyed by the blast.

It was another action filled day in BoomTown, and some rookie had thought they could actually take him on.

The smell of already spent and burning gunpowder filled his nose. The jeers of the crowd got even louder, but for a second the sharp fiery pain seemed to drown it all out.

It almost overpowered his drive to win, took him out of the zone. If it did, he wouldn’t be getting up for a while.

No.

Magnus shoved it down and shakily tried to stand.

It wasn’t over yet, he hadn’t hit the ground.

This was what he lived for, and he’d be damned if he let some hotshot noob take it away.

Said newbie was still crowing from the small victory.

Big mistake.

Magnus took out some TNT, his hands jittery, lit it, and hurled it as hard as he could while the kid’s back was turned.

The resulting explosion was quick, loud, and maybe a bit too close. The pain spread and grew, and it felt like he was being covered in lava.

Magnus only got to see his challenger hit the dirt before everything went black.

* * *

When he opened his eyes again, he was in his bed back at the tower, and he wasn’t alone. Both Ivor and Gabriel were in the room and were talking, not that he could make out any of the words.

When had they gotten here?

They hadn’t been in town before, not that the portals and tracks couldn’t get them pretty much anywhere quick.

Their chat ended abruptly. Must’ve noticed he was up.

“How are you feeling Magnus?” Gabriel was smiling a smile that looked nothing reassuring. If anything, it was suspicious.

“Don’t strain yourself.” Ivor gave him some water, which Magnus quickly downed.

A good match always left him parched at the end. All the smoke had a habit of doing that to a fella.

“Thanks.” He handed back the cup and sat up, only to be pushed back down.

“Magnus, you really should-” Magnus grinned, a little confused, as Gabriel only acted weirder.

“Look, I’m glad you guys are here, but you’re worrying about nothing. I’m fine, see?” Magnus meant to get out of bed then and there, a little sore or not. He would’ve too, if his legs cooperated.

It wasn’t like they’d fallen asleep; he couldn’t feel them at all-

No stinging, aching, pain- _anything_. More importantly, he couldn’t move them.

Not even a toe seemed willing to budge.

“There’s no easy way to put this…” Gabe wouldn’t look at him.

 “You did irreparable damage to your spinal cord during the fight, aggravated it to the point where you now have paraplegia.” Ivor interrupted, face practically emotionless. Magnus didn’t recognize the term, and it must have shown. “Magnus… To put it simply…”

Ivor went on to talk about wheelchairs, and, at best in the far future, crutches, but all Magnus could hear were those same words on repeat.

“You will _never_ walk

 _a g a i n_.”


	2. Chapter 2

Lady Luck is a cruel, cruel mistress. Don’t let anybody else tell ya otherwise, ‘cause they’re lying.

For every good thing that happens to you, there’s always something Notchawful to balance it back out.

Eventually, if things are going your way, even for a little while, that luck’s gonna run out real quick. And when it does, you’re never going to be ready for it.

Believe me. I spent ten solid years living in paranoia, and I still wasn’t ready for it when the other shoe dropped.

I thought Ellie dying, Soren leaving us in the dust like the coward he is, and the whole world finding out we were frauds was the end of it, the last bit of that shoe before we were going to be set back to 0.

I was wrong.

Name’s Magnus, and I’d probably be out there with all those griefers blowing everything up too if it weren’t for one little problem.

I can’t walk.

That’s right, King of BoomTown and I can’t even take a step. Pathetic, huh?

Well, King of BoomTown until word gets out that I’m not on the mend, because not walking isn’t something you can just get over with a good day’s rest. Trust me on this one, I tried. I’ve tried getting up anyhow, drunk more healing potions than I ever have before, thought about and tried walking right out of here on my hands. Course, that last one ended up with me in more pain.

I don’t have anything against this stupid wheelchair except that- Well…

Lemme ask you something: Can a guy be King of BoomTown, something that requires jumping, running, rolling, and throwing things as hard as possible all at the same time if his legs don’t work?

Of course not. It’d be crazy, even by griefer standards.

Maybe I’m just lucky to have gotten to hold onto the position as long as I did.

I almost wasn’t allowed back, on account of that whole being a fraud issue. I was in the end, because even if the order wasn’t always on the up and up, I never cheated in BoomTown. I beat back every challenger fair and square, smashed people into the dust without any help.

Fact is, I’m stuck here, and I’m losing my mind. I’ve lived in this tower for a long time, and it’s a lot bigger than it looks. If I was ever going stir-crazy before, I’d tune-up my traps, have some fun with some TNT, spit on some heads.

Back then I could actually do something.

To be fair, I can still do the whole spitting on people’s heads thing.

Axel’s out there taking care of any challengers right now, but I’ll have to go out eventually.

As soon as I leave this tower, they’ll see this damned thing and it won’t be hard to put 2 and 2 together.

Ellie always said-

…

She always said my stubbornness would be the death of me. I guess she was right.

That’s kinda how I got like this in the first place.

See, I was fighting a challenger, they got a lucky shot, managed to injure me real bad. I destroyed them in the end, like always, but apparently between me getting hit, which hurt like hell, and me giving them a beat down, I only made my back worse and, guess what, took out my legs.

I don’t think I’d ever seen Ivor so mad, not even when he left the order. Gabe wasn’t happy either, but he’s never been very good at getting mad.

Not at people.

I bet you anything Ellie would’ve already figured out a way around this, used some invention of hers. She always had an answer to everything, which was both really annoying and pretty awesome.

Mind you, I’m not a complete idiot, at least not with… machinery and… parts…

How would you even modify a wheelchair anyway?

Tell you what kid, I’ll talk to ya later. I think I’ve got an idea that’s crazy enough to work.

If it doesn’t, I’m all outta luck. Right now though, I think I’ve had enough bad luck that I’m due some good.

What’s there to lose?


End file.
